Common gun barrels are polished or browned to prevent them from rusting, real Damascus barrels are subjected to a chemical process, which brings out the fine wavy lines and prevents them from rusting.

All these operations having been performed, the barrel, the lock, and the stock, are brought back by the respective workmen who have given them the final touch, and put together by the finisher or gun maker, and this putting together is as much as many eminent gunmakers ever do.  But, by care and good judgment, they acquire a reputation for which they can charge a handsome percentage.

For these reasons, with local knowledge, it is possible to obtain from a Birmingham finisher who keeps no shop, a first-rate double gun at a very low figure compared with retail prices.

Belgium and Germany compete with Birmingham for cheap African guns, and even forge the proof marks.  Neither in quality nor in price for first-rate articles can any country compete with us.

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Swords and Matchetts.—­The sword trade of Birmingham is trifling compared with that in guns.  The foreign demand has dwindled away until it has become quite insignificant, and the chief employment is afforded by our own army and navy.  Nevertheless, good swords are made in Birmingham, which is the only town in England where any manufacture of the kind exists, although the blades often bear the names of more fashionable localities.

It is among the traditions of the Birmingham trade, that in 1817, when our Government was about to transfer its orders for swords to Germany, in consequence of the inferiority of English swords, a Mr. Gill claimed to compete for the contract; and that in order to show what he could do, he appeared before the Board of Ordnance with a sword, which he tied round his thigh, and then untied, when it immediately became straight.  In the end Mr. Gill was the means of retaining the sword trade in Birmingham.

Sword-grinding is worth seeing.  Sword-makers find their principal employment in producing Matchetts, a tool or weapon very much like the modern regulation cutlass, but stronger and heavier, with a plain beech-wood handle, worth wholesale from 6d. to 9d. each.  They are used in the East and West Indies, Ceylon, and South America, for cutting down sugar-canes and similar uses.  We take the name to be Spanish; it is used by Defoe and Dampier.  We only mention the article as one of the many odd manufactures made, but never sold retail, in England.

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Steel pens.—­All the steel pens made in England, and a great many sold in France, Germany, and America, whatever names or devices they may bear, are manufactured in Birmingham.  In this respect, as in many others of the same nature, the Birmingham manufacturers are very accommodating, and quite prepared to stamp on their productions the American Eagle, the Cap of Liberty, the effigy of Pio Nono, or of the Comte de Chambord, if they get the order, the cash, or a good credit.  And they are very right; their business is to supply the article, the sentiment is merely a matter of taste.